Hooray…another “What if” section!
So here’s the deal. One day, while I was talking to one of my coworkers from one of my jobs, I found myself engaged into a discussion of what kids were watching these days (the person I was talking to was a mother of two kids after all). Of course, she started enumerating shows that I’m sure a majority of people would recognize immediately…shows like Spongebob Squarepants (and all related things from Nickelodeon), a couple of shows from Cartoon Network, and of course the usual Japanese hits like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and some shit that I would have never laid my eyes on (not at least at my current age anyway). Then she mentioned Spirited Away and Ghost in the Shell….well, okay that last part was a lie. But if that would have happened on that boring mundane day, I would have felt much more awake (in surprise) than I would have been after chugging down several cups of coffee.
There’s also the undeniable fact that, while most of the people I know at the aniblogosphere range somewhere between the ages of late-teens to maybe mid-twenties and are indeed single, there’s a few I know that are married and even fewer…married with kids (yes ghostlightning, your inclusion to this category is mandatory as of a few weeks ago). Well, the point is, I can’t stop wondering how those children would react (assuming that they themselves would come to adore all things anime, manga, etc) if they found out that their parents are die-hard fans of all things anime, manga, etc. Come to think of, I really don’t have a clue how on things would have turned out if parents enjoy the very same thing I enjoy. Well then, let’s get down speculations…
Speculated Advantages
- No more strange looks every time they see you watch anime - After all these years, I thought one of my parents would have accepted this hobby of ours, and yet every now and then I get strange looks that pretty much say “are you my child?” Perhaps things would have been different if they were in to the same thing. Then again, I do give them the same exact look whenever they’re into something that’ illogical for me. Ah well..must be mutual.
- Expensive figures will be yours for presents -
Getting one without having to pay one...that's all there is to it
Oh hell yes. With this, I no longer have to contemplate on buying figures. All I need to do is be a good kid and somehow make birthdays come more than once a year. If I do that and… boom! Figures galore…
- Getting them periodic manga anthology magazines would be treated as any other monthly magazine subscription-
Goodbye National Geographic
Pretty much the same as figures…no need to get a-spending.
- Anime/Manga conventions are a family get-together thing - The only reason I put this here is because I don’t have to spend on anything. I just need to ask parents for a simple favor which I know by all means they’ll understand. Otherwise…
Speculated Disadvantages
- Freakshow family – It’s bad enough that you have a parent who looks down upon you and anything anime-related; It might be worse if other people look down on you as a family.
- Means of punishment-
WHAT?! NO ANIME FOR A WEEK?!!!!
This one’s easy. Technically, because you have parents who know pretty much what you’re up to when you do anything anime,manga,etc-related, they can use this a means of punishment. Of course, I’m way past the age of penalties…I’m just stating the possibility.
- Not being able to tell which one is worse between your father catching you watching hentai or you catching your father watching hentai-
Son, I need you tell me what you saw me doing last night...
Need I say more?
- Anime/Manga conventions are a family get-together thing – Like I said earlier, the only good thing about this point is how you are able to have free stuff, well in theory at least. Other than that, it’s kind of weird to have your parents follow you around conventions.
Of course, we have to keep in mind these are speculations from my own perspective…so some of the things here might/might not make sense to people depending on who you’re asking. And while any of these instances are unlikely, they are by no means impossible.
Personally, I’d rather not have such parents no matter how the advantages outweigh the disadvantages (if they really do outweigh them). I don’t know…it’s just…
Mandatory
There’s a new poll about this by the way. Check the sidebar nauuuhhhw!!!!
{ 16 comments }
If parents liked anime, the most direct result would be that the kids would be ten times more likely to dislike it by the time they’re teenagers. XD It is the stubborn streak that all teenagers have, including me though I love my parents dearly.
Now siblings on the other hand, older ones are almost admired by their younger ones whether they believe it or not. So a sibling that’s into anime would be…so very awesome. Or at least I say that as a girl who already gets along with her brother very well. Even when he’s being stupid and hogging up all the internet.
But is it odd that most of the positive things you treat as “what if”s I already have from my parents? I already get figures I just have to point out the ones I want. As for my first convention, every time I bring it up my parents say they’ll stay in the hotel with me and spend a day in whatever city. My parents have a healthy interest and support for my hobbies without sharing them. I like that best~
FuyuMaiden’s last blog post..Shugo Chara!! Doki – Episode 86
This will be ghostlightning‘s kid’s life in a few years. 8D
Kiri’s last blog post..First Impressions: Tommy Heanvely6′s I Kill My Heart
I agree with FuyuMaiden. Basically, many kids growing up in that environment would probably end up thinking anime was uncool…. For the ones that do develop a taste for it, then i guess it’d be pretty darn sweet..
animekritik’s last blog post..Shin “Magritte” Shougeki! 09: INVASION
ghostlightning: Hey Kyuun~ wanna watch some Macross Frontier?
Kyuun~Kyuun~: Go watch it by yourself oldfag. The Melancholy of Gundam SEED Destiny is on.
ghostlightning: nyoro~n
sybilant: fufufufu
Kids won’t grow up to hate anime, they’ll just find their parents’ pet shows LAME.
Well, I know that if I have a kid, I’d be the otaku parent…and then my kid would probably hate anime because I’m into it so much. NOOOO!!!! I won’t have a kid if it turns out that way! *flails in despaaaiiirrr* Dx
Lol Well, as for having otaku parents, I’m leaning more to the side of not.
Then again, I go to notable lengths to keep my hobby to myself so whether they get into the same things I do or not really wouldn’t matter. Like one of your poll options said, as long as they don’t interfere in my musings and I keep my nose out of theirs, everything should be fine. I can only imagine what an otaku household would be like if…god forbid, we all go into a shipping war and end up not talking to each other for a week over it! o.O; Or worst…
“_____ is more moe than your ______ will ever be!”
“Dad, your “moe” idol is trap! It was revealed in the special OAD!”
“…Seriously?”
xDDD;;;
As for the advantages and disadvantages you listed, I had fun reading them. Though I always started feeling guilty about anime/manga merchandise using my parents’ money (dating way back to my YGO! card days, ugh, nightmare -_-; ) so it still wouldn’t matter anyway. *sigh* Buuhuu~ T_T
Concerning conventions, I’ve seen parents at them. Don’t know if there are parents who go around looking at stuff with interest but if it’s something really embarrassing, we won’t acknowledge that we’re related at all. Nope.
Lol @ the hentai part. Not in my household will you ever see one of those. *scary smile* ^^
I would be happy if I have otaku parents. Yeah Im serious. So that they can now understand my moe. If you know what I mean..
Kairu Ishimaru’s last blog post..Obligatory Summer ‘09 Anime Impressions Post
Well, I started liking Yu-Gi-Oh! when my mom started buying the cards for me! Or not? Anyway, I can thank my mom for helping with my interests… Back then!
Now that I’m 17-to-get-18-so-adult-in-1-year, my mom’s attitude towards my interest has gotten really annoying, since she sets it up as the ‘root of the evil’ that distracts me from my studies (well, that’s not necessarily or absolutely not true)… The thing is that my bro, who’s 3 years younger (and a boy, it seems that counts, too), doesn’t have it so bad as I do. In fact, it’s like my bro is SOOOOOOOOO brilliant and I’m the black sheep (but that happens in all times and in every aspect of my family life, so I’m kinda used to it, even though I hate it)… So my bro gets all kinds of anime he likes and watches everything without having such paranoid behaviour or annoying problems by mom… IT’S SO UNFAIR!!!
So I’d really like it if my parents could by any means understand my love for anime and maga stuff… But I don’t think I would like it so much if they were otakus themselves. But I don’t think I would come to hate it, either. Maybe it’s that being an otaku makes me unique in my family, so I’d prefer to let it be the way it already is… with my family being a little more considerate about my feelings for my interest, just like what they do with my bro. As long as they understand and not poke their noses into my stuff, it’s the perfect situation. I like it that only my bro understands my interest, even if I hate it when he gets all my parents’ attention I don’t…
The hentai part!!! LOL! It made my day! I can’t imagine my dad having any relation with real porn magazines and tapes, let alone hentai (yeah, he’s rediculously serious about that kind of stuff)!… LOL!
Good job, pal! I liked this post. See ya soon enough. Bye!
Same here. I wouldn’t want to have otaku parents either. It feels…strange somehow. I just like them to be understanding of what I read/watch and I’m grateful to them when they told me whatever I’m interested in, it’s none of their business (unless it drastically affects my behavior in a negative way
). I know of some friends who have parents being too overprotective of what their children have access to and they take away their kids’ stuff when it interferes with say, their studies.
As for hentai… Um, well… I clearly remember this conversation I had with my mom a year or two ago;
me: *Looking at a safe promo poster of XXXX series*
mom: *Looks at the computer screen* Have you watched that Anime?
me: Ehh… No. I don’t think it’s suitable for me.
mom: Why?
me: Well, it has nudity and raep and all sorts of AO-rated things in it.
mom: You’re 20+ for goodness sake. You’re old enough to take this sort of stuff.
me: . . .Excuse me? o_O
Yeah, I’m a wuss. I need more mental training. :p
First, it would be scary. Kids don’t like being understood. Second: what if they’ll indeed dislike anime because we like it?
I would tolerate it though. When I get a waifu and a child (if), my goal will be to be that kind of father as Konata’s is.
Gargron’s last blog post..Summer 2009
“Kids won’t grow up to hate anime, they’ll just find their parents’ pet shows LAME.”
Truer words have never been said. Teens always want to be different from their parents. Even if they end up liking the same kinds of things, it has to be different from the stuff their parents expose them to.
Oh wow. I want free stuff. If the anime products weren’t so expensive, I would so buy them. My parents would never be otakus(’cause they’re Chinese mostly and they left Asia way before anime was even invented). My parents still give me the no anime punishment though
more of the “I’m going to take away your computer” punishment is more like it. My friend’s dad isn’t an otaku(at least I don’t think so), but she said that she caught her dad watching hentai.Rin’s last blog post..Japanese Song of the Week: Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite
I think I’d just appreciate it if my parents didn’t criticize me about it. I’m afraid of the possibility of my mom being an otaku … she fangirls about Twilight enough T_T (much to my despair).
I agree with Fuyu, though. My brother got me into DBZ and such when I was younger and I felt cool to be watching it with him.
I’d probably end up watching something where someone’s head gets hacked off with lotsa high-pressure blood and then the kid’ll walk in at the tender age of 5 and be traumatized forever…that’s basically what happened to me, but with a live-action TV movie my mom was watching…XD;;
Still won’t think of kids for at least another decade, but I do have a kid sister who’s only 5 years old. I read her Rurouni Kenshin for a while…she watched FMA for a bit too, but while I was half asleep on the floor since they were reruns. She will inherit the portion of my extensive collection that I cannot take to college, but none of my games.
Hypothetically, though, I’d be the parent who’d do her best to push her kid past the point of no return in otakudom. I’d probably line the crib with posters…and play some game soundtrack songs instead of traditional lullabies (like Reisha’s Lullaby from Ar Tonelico II). All in all, the kid’ll be corrupted by the time he/she reaches Kindergarten.
I’m an otaku parent. I lol’d at no anime for a week. That would be a punishment for my wife and I more than for our son XD Of course, our son is only 5, but he enjoys Lucky Star, Keroro Gunsou and many many other anime. He doesn’t own any figures yet for the sake of him not understanding the value and fragility of such things so much, but he doesn’t hurt any of our figures. When we first started collecting figures he thought they were toys, but over the last year he’s come to an understanding of what they are and how they’re for looking at not touching (for the most part). The thing about being otaku parents that really is mandatory is that you don’t push your kid/kids to like it. My wife and I don’t sit there and force him to watch anime and many times we watch it he’ll be watching a movie or some other cartoon, but if he’s interested in it he can watch it. Pushing what you like onto your kids is never a good thing, but if they take up liking it on their own it’s perfectly fine. Of course, some day if he says he wants a figure I’ll buy it for him, and he actually gets excited when the mailman drops off a new figure. One of these days my wife and I will do a nice big post about being otaku parents. The thing is though, our son is only 5, and things change as they get older, he might come to loath anime and everything that comes with it, but seeing how we don’t push him to like it he might just become a future otaku himself. As long as he takes his own path and does what he likes it’s ok.
Persocom’s last blog post..Mikuru Asahina Fighting Waitress Ver. Figma
FuyuMaiden: I’m glad you included “likely” in your statement. I do agree with you though; but as to what it is that will push me to disliking anime should it have been one of my parents’ interest is whether or not they impose it to me or not. I have a tendency to shove away things my parents impose on me and grow to like the ones they don’t.
Unfortunately, I’ll never have get the chance to look up to an older sibling coming from someone who’s the eldest in the family.
And no..it’s not odd (maybe for you, yes). I did say that these advantages/disadvantages are listed according to my perspective. There are hobbies out there that I’d rather have with parents’ support…but anime is not one of them.
Kiri: True, that…wwwwww
animekritik: “Sweet” is a very relative word. They way I am now, I’d rather have my parents non-otakus.
ghostlightning: I’d jizz in my pants if a show like The Melancholy of Gundam SEED Destiny were to air.
As for pet shows, you’re absolutely right. I don’t even want to bother finding out what my parents’ pet shows are.
Xiao Jie: A kidless
Xiao Jie?! Nooooooooo.LOLOLOL @ shipping wars. Wow, I never even thought of that, but good that you brought it up. There would be World Wars at my house everyday if that were to happen.
If I were you, I wouldn’t be so sure to say that there’s no chance one of your parents won’t read hentai.
Kairu Ishimaru: I know exactly what you mean.
LuluChan92: I’d really hate it if my parents were responsible for my immersion to everything otaku only to have it banned for some outrageous reason (which is why I put ‘means of punishment’ as a disadvantage, though in your case, your parents need not to be necessarily otakus). Aww…I think it’s a bit harsh that your brother can do whatever he likes while you can’t.
OMG…yess! +10 for mentioning being the lone otaku in the family makes you unique.
Like I’ve told Xiao Jie, don’t be so sure there’s not a chance one of your parents will read Hentai.
Keiri: Wow..I wish my parents were that lenient! There’s no way my mom would tell me I’m old enough to watch pr0n and/or hentai to that extent, especially when she’s always all-righteous and stuff.
Gargron: When you do get to have a waifu and a kid who both enjoy anime, gimme a call we’ll have an anime marathon and beear at oktoberfest.
kadian1364: Keyword: exposed. If it’s just for exposure, then I don’t think kids will necessarily hate. Change ‘exposed’ to ‘imposed’ and it’s a whole new story.
Rin: That sucks. I know somebody else in the blogosphere who is forbidden to go to cons because she’s Chinese and all.
AHAHAHA…your friend caught her dad watching hentai?! AWESOME.
saimaisama: A Twilight fan for a mom?! I’d rather commit hara kiri.
Like I’ve told Fuyu, I really can’t say much about getting the anime influence from an elder sibling, though I can speculate it’s a nice feeling.
miken-chan: So that’s why you’re so angry all the time.
Ah yes, I haven’t really mentioned much about otakudom in a perspective of an elder sister/brother. I’ve managed to get my sister in to it…not to my younger brother though. Then again, we’re about a decade apart.
Not a bad experiment actually! Lining the crib with posters (hentai or not?) and spamming air with anime Op/Ed…let me know how it turns out!
Persocom: I actually wrote this post with you and others otaku parents I know in the blogosphere in mind. And it’s very righteous of you to get your child exposed to these kinds of things without overdoing it to the point where it becomes a imposition. You’re a cool parent for those reasons.
It’s funny because I was the last person in my family to know anything related to or all about anime, but I feel I might be the one most into it o_o My mom actually lived in Japan as a 7th grader with her family for a year,
why couldn’t I have been my mom, uh anyway, so I think she must of at least have heard about it over there, and she’s a big fan of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, etc. Believe it or not, she was trying to get me to watch Spirited Away! It’s so funny to think about it now, but I can’t believe it was first my mom trying to have me watch a Miyazaki movie o__O; Then my dad I think knows about it, or isn’t entirely oblivious because he showed A-ko or whatever to us, which I thought it was wierd that my Dad liked an animated movie. Then for my sister I noticed she started liking ‘this stuff’ and she was watching Cowboy Bebop one time before school and I was like, wtf is this? And then I walked into her room while she was watching Ouran on her laptop, subbed since it wasn’t avaliable yet on DVD here, and I was SERIOUSLY freaking out, why are those twins so close to each other? And why is the clock tower pink? She also has all of the volumes of W Juliet and Hana Kimi and Chobits and I think one of those picture book type things. Yeah and then she finally sat me and my mom down to watch, god forbid a show called “Princess Tutu” which was about a duck, or a girl or whatever Honestly she failed at explaining it to me, but then I got hooked. /end of lifestory sorry. I asked my mom for ‘dvds’ aka- anime for presents, but she’s not an otaku and neither is my sister really. But it’s wierd to think back and realize that all of this stuff was out infront of my eyes that I never really noticed or put together before actually starting to like this ‘anime business’Comments on this entry are closed.